


Spelling Lessons

by Peeves_MelodyHallows



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: Diana has to tutor the school dolt, Dorks in Love, F/F, Fluff and Angst, OK LUNA YOU CAN READ THIS ONE, Rated G for Diana's super gay crush on Akko tbh, Rivals to friends to lovers?, incredibly good poker faces
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-09
Updated: 2017-10-15
Packaged: 2018-09-23 02:13:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9636326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peeves_MelodyHallows/pseuds/Peeves_MelodyHallows
Summary: It's been Akko's lifelong dream to become a world renowned witch like Shiny Chariot, but with her grades at a record breaking low, she's sitting on the edge of expulsion, and her only hope left lies in tutoring sessions from the star prodigy, Diana Cavendish...who may dislike her less than she'd thought...Diakko garbage because I am garbage, compliant with the tv series up until episode 5 and we'll find out if it stays that way in the following weeks, now won't we chaps?





	1. Make a Wish

               Akko’s potion went wrong again. It was of the routinely catastrophic variety; a cloud of sickly purple smoke burst forth from her cauldron, a fervent wail from the girl alerted the class to her plight, and Diana felt a sigh fall from her lips. This was the second incident this week—and it was Tuesday.

               Diana observed from a distance as Akko’s potion burbled over the edge of her cauldron and spilled onto her desk in waves, the thick purple liquid bubbling aggressively as it ate through everything it touched. In a matter of seconds, Akko was leading half the class in a chorus of horrified screams, and as their professor tried to quell the chaos, Diana set to work.

               With her wand held ahead of her, she recited the appropriate cleanup and reversal spell. The corrosive purple sludge climbed back up the desk and into the cauldron, pulling away from the eroded wood to reveal desks and notes undamaged. The room went quiet, as if no one could quite register the remedied problem. And then the praise began.

               Screams became squeals of delight as Diana pushed a strand of platinum blond hair behind her ear and crossed her arms. The happy applause and fawning of the teacher echoed in her ears, but she was impassive. It was merely routine, and she was waiting, somewhat dreadfully, for it to meet its conclusion. A sidelong glance towards the cleared mess gave Diana a perfect view of Akko, whose face was red with anger as she glared daggers into the blonde. Oh, if looks could kill.

               “I didn’t need your help!” she declared.

               Diana closed her eyes, her face offering no expression. She was merely following the routine. “I wasn’t helping you, I was dispelling a potential danger to the class.”

               “A potential danger?!”

               “Do you have a better way to describe a potion that can eat through a stone floor? Perhaps if you spent as much time studying as you do fawning over Shiny Chariot, your ability to make a potion might have actually improved in the past three months.”

               That had done it. Diana watched as Akko seethed with rage, and she knew she’d hit a raw nerve. Where Shiny Chariot was concerned, Akko was nothing if not unreasonable. But…it was the quickest way to get Lotte and Sucy to intervene, which worked nicely for Diana. The pain a verbal lashing by Akko brought to her chest was unpleasant—the less time it took, the better.

               “Leave Shiny Chariot out of this!!” Akko shrieked, and as she made to lung at Diana, Lotte held her back and tried to assuage her anger with timid, heartfelt words. Diana, meanwhile, returned to her own potion and her own thoughts. As Hannah and Barbara snickered at what they perceived as an idiotic attachment to Shiny Chariot, Diana found herself following a disobedient thought through a scenario where Lotte had let Akko tackle her. She found herself measuring the price of physical pain to the worth of physical contact with the girl.

               She concluded, at least by the time she’d perfected her potion, that hopeful thinking did little more than make her chest wrench with pain. Akko hated her…it’d probably benefit her to feel the same. And yet, she had still spent the rest of the class sneaking glances at her, studying her determined expression for a split second before looking away, and repeating the action a few times so that she could carve the look deep into her memory.

               She’d continued this into the next class, and into lunch. She committed to memory each bored, pouty sigh, each bright, enthusiastic smile, even the enraged expression she took on when Amanda teased her about her absolute lack of magical talent. Witnessing this formed a sickening pit in Diana’s stomach: Amanda’s comments never warranted the absolute _hatred_ Akko had for Diana. Amanda could call Akko an idiot ten times in one hour and not two hours later the girls were joking together as if they’d never fought at all.

               But Diana had it different. Diana was top of the class where Akko was the very bottom, naturally talented where Akko struggled, born into legendary witch family where Akko had no relation to witches at all. She was the unanimous favorite, the prodigy. Any interaction she had with Akko came prefaced and threaded with murmurs and stifled giggles, it came with soft scoffs about Akko’s ineptitude and praise to the Cavendish name. Diana couldn’t recall exactly when she’d first noticed the little winces of sadness flicker across Akko’s face when she interacted with her, she simply knew that recognition of it had made every compliment spoil as it hit her ears.

               Praise at the Akko’s expense felt like poison to her, but they were the sort of things a Cavendish couldn’t and wouldn’t dare apologize for, especially in Diana’s case. Akko was of a much lesser caliber, her common blood made her inferior to Diana in the eyes of most of her teachers and classmates. She was a failure of a witch who might as well have been worlds apart from Diana, so the very idea that they could be friends was a fool’s errand… _more_ than friends was a thought akin to a fever dream.

               And yet here she was, fruitlessly doodling on a spare scrap of paper in a secluded corner of the library after dark, making sure to catch every detail she could remember while keeping an ear out for Hannah and Barbara. She’d ditched them after dinner to hide here, surrendering herself wholly to her own fatal crush for as long as she could afford. Akko appeared on the scrap of paper again and again, her neat brown bangs and clean cut hair drawn to perfection, her smile brightening the page again and again. She drew a pout, a sigh, a scowl…another grin.

               She turned the paper over for more room, and continued again and again…until a soft, wayward snort breached her façade. She’d inadvertently drawn Akko as Shiny Chariot. Diana traced the lines of the drawing with her finger, smiling softly until the thought to keep the drawing crossed her mind, and her lips pressed into a frown. She wanted to. She gripped the paper tight by the edges for a moment, reluctant to let it go.

               The full gravity of her emotions seeped in her face for a while, all the sadness and longing she expertly hid day after day exposed and raw in her expression. She bit her lip and let out a deep sigh before rising to her feet and walking out of the alcove she’d hidden herself in. Her façade returned, the once precious piece of scrap paper crumpled up in her hands and discarded in a waste bin as she nodded a farewell to the librarians and left that hall. It would be troublesome if anyone discovered that Diana Cavendish, of all people, had a soft spot for Luna Nova’s biggest flunky, Kagari Akko.

               And so, Diana fell back into the routine, returning to her quarters, entering her dorm to see Hannah and Barbara again, listening to them tell her about a meeting Ursula wanted to have with her tomorrow, getting into her nightgown and climbing into her top bunk. The routine would continue, but before she fell asleep, Diana caught herself wishing…hoping that something would grant her a way to see Akko alone.

               Tomorrow she’d think that she should’ve been careful what she’d wished for.

oooOOOooo


	2. Trouble

               Akko had assumed the worst. When Professor Ursula had told her to come to her office after class, she knew it could only mean one thing: she was in trouble. In the morning, she’d attempted to think of a reason. She worried about what she’d been caught doing and what sort of punishment she’d receive. Sucy and Lotte had been quick to pull her back down to earth—half the reasons she mentioned never happened and all of the punishments she concocted were either impossible or nonsensical.

               By the time the final bell rang, Akko had deflated, surrendering to the fact that she had no idea what she’d done. “Why couldn’t she just call me in right away instead of making me wait all day?” Akko whined as she walked through the halls with Sucy and Lotte. At least then I wouldn’t have all day to worry about what mistake I made!”

               “I’m sure it’s nothing that big, Akko,” Lotte smiled, “She probably just wants to talk to you about your classes or something.”

               “Or maybe she wants to feed you to her ravenous man-eating plant,” Sucy remarked with an unnerving grin, and Akko, who was too far gone in her worry, didn’t catch the jest.

               “I don’t wanna be eaten!!” Akko wailed dramatically.

               “You won’t die, I was joking,” Sucy said bluntly as her usual blank expression returned. “Besides, Professor Ursula’s not cool enough to have a man-eating plant for a pet.”

               “Sucyyy!” Akko whined. “That’s mean!”

               “I know.”

               “Um, Akko, aren’t…weren’t you supposed to head to Professor Ursula’s office right after class?”

               “Hm? Yeah…isn’t her office this way?”

               “Actually it’s in the opposite direction,” Sucy stated, “On the other side of the building.”

               Akko withered. “Oh crap.”

               “If you run, you’ll probably only be fifteen minutes late.”

               “I gotta go…” Akko hopped from foot to foot for a few moments before sprinting down the hall, speeding her way up the stairs, getting lost, asking for directions, getting lost again, and then somehow finding Ursula’s office, which she bolted into without a moment’s hesitation.

               “I’m sorry I’m late!” Akko wailed as she clapped her hands together and bowed, her eyes squeezed shut as she continued, “and I’m really sorry about whatever I did wrong, I’ll do whatever punishment you deem acceptable!”

               No response came at first, but after a long pause, a soft, gentle laugh traveled to her ears. “Please relax, Atsuko, you aren’t in trouble for anything.”

               “That isn’t precisely how I’d put it.”

               Akko’s eyes shot open as she recognized a second voice in the room, and she found herself staring straight at her own self-proclaimed rival, Diana Cavendish. “What are you doing here?!” Akko shouted as she stabbed a finger in Diana’s direction.

               “I was invited,” the blond replied in her usual haughty tone, her face as expressionless as usual. Akko’s hands curled into fists as she stormed towards Diana’s chair.

               “No, I was asked to meet with Professor Ursula this morning.”

               “And was invited yesterday evening, so if you mean to say that you were called here first, I’m afraid that isn’t the case.”

               “Atsuko, please sit,” Ursula stammered, a nervous smile tugged tentatively on the edge of her lips. “I wished to speak with both of you.”

               Akko blinked, and after straightening up, she sidestepped in front of the empty chair next to Diana and plopped down into it. She fidgeted, her eyes darting around the dark office for a bit before she moved to speak again. “So…are we both in trouble?”

               “I believe that causing messes is your area of expertise, Akko, not mine,” Diana replied, leading Akko to growl at her.

               “Girls, please. Neither of you are in trouble for any misdemeanors, but…” Ursula frowned and pushed up her glasses as she continued, “well…initially I had wanted to meet and tell you a little before this meeting, Akko, as it is a sensitive matter…”

               “What? What’s a sensitive matter?!” Akko lurched forward in her chair, and Ursula sighed.

               “Your grades…they’re…they’re awful.”

               “Abysmal, actually,” Diana cut in, “In fact, they’re record breaking. You literally have the worst grades of anyone who has ever attended Luna Nova.”

               “Diana…” Ursula murmured apologetically as she frowned, and Akko felt as if her cheeks were going to catch fire.

               “I’m merely stating the facts that you informed me of. She has a right to know just how bad the damage is.”

               “W-Well yes, but…”

               “I-I-I’ve been practicing!” Akko shouted frantically as she slammed her hands down on Ursula’s desk. “Lotte and Sucy have been helping me study and I’ve been getting better! I’m even starting to figure out how to fly a broom, Amanda’s been helping me—“

               “I know, Atsuko, and I have noticed your improvement, but…” Ursula let out a heavy sigh, “the other professors here…they aren’t impressed. And due to your failing grades across the board…the headmistress has informed me that you have until the end of the term to pull your grades up or…” Ursula trailed off, and Akko let out a soft whimper.

               “Or what?”

               “Oh you’ll be forced to drop out.”

               Akko felt as if her heart had been snapped in two. The only thing that made it worse was that Diana Cavendish, of all people, was here to witness this.

               “But I do have good news! You only have to pull your grades up to Ds to pass—“

               “I can do that!” Akko interjected, brightening with a momentary determination before withering again at Ursula’s next words.

               “And I’ve asked Diana here to be your remedial tutor from now on.”

-*O*-

               Diana was trying to imagine falling into the deepest, darkest hole she could consider, where no one could see her, hear her, or even remember her. She was trying to imagine the most unpleasant experiences she could fathom, such as clipping the headmistress’s toenails or making potions with Professor Lukic in a room with zero ventilation.

               She had concluded, in the past few moments, that she would gladly take any of that over being in this room to watch Akko’s devastation at the notion of spending time with her. Diana felt as if someone had just thrown her heart into a boiling potion, but nonetheless, she held her posture, her expression stayed impassive, her fingers curled together gently in her lap and her ankles crossed gracefully beneath the chair. The toe of her left shoe tapped in soft beats of two against the carpet—the only signal to her distress.

               “Isn’t there anyone else who can tutor me?” Akko whined.

               “Wha…someone else?” Ursula seemed taken aback by the question, and she adjusted her as she peered down towards the clutter of paperwork on her desk. “But…Diana is the most qualified, a-and she’s plenty willing—“

               “If Akko would rather have a lesser tutor, I am fine with that,” Diana rose to her feet and turned towards the door. She closed her eyes as she continued. “I’ve no interest in helping those who will not help themselves.” Diana started for the door, keeping her stride light despite how much she wanted to escape the office, until a yell from Akko brought her to a halt.

               “Hey! I do wanna get better! I just don’t want a tutor as snooty and conceited as you!”

               Diana hesitated. She could have kept walking. If she’d wanted to avoid this situation, she probably should have. But for some reason, either out of anger or sadness, she turned, immediately locking eyes with the girl glaring at her. “If you’re willing to sabotage your own chances of saving _your_ dream on the basis of pride alone, you are not helping yourself. You are, in fact, doing the opposite.”

               “What?! That’s not true!”

               “How is it not? Professor Ursula just told you that I’m the most qualified to tutor you, a fact that you likely knew before she mentioned it.”

               “You aren’t the best tutor just because you have the best grades!”

               “No, but I am the best tutor because I have the best grades _and_ experience tutoring.”

               “S-She does have a lot of experience,” Professor Ursula stammered, and Akko visibly deflated again. “She’s tutored several younger witches in the past three years, and they all showed significant improvement in a small timeframe. And I figured…well I thought you might learn to get along, considering how much you have in common…”

               “What the heck could we possibly have in common?!” Akko bellow back at the professor.

               Ursula shrunk a little before stuttering out a response. W-W-Well…you both love magic, and Luna Nova—“

               “What student doesn’t?!”

               “A-And you both admire Shiny Chariot…?”

               Diana wished she could say that she hadn’t flinched. A flicker of surprise had definitely breached her façade, but it had—much to her benefit—dissipated just before Akko swerved back to look at her in bewilderment. Behind her back, the fingers of Diana’s right hand tapped in soft beats of two against her left arm. “I have no attachment to Shiny Chariot whatsoever. I’m not sure where you heard otherwise.”

               “O-Oh. Sorry, I just assumed…” Ursula readjusted her glasses anxiously, “I just noticed that you had one of the trading cards when you were at the library the other day…”

               Diana’s fingers twitched behind her back. It seemed that she’d had a small stroke of carelessness. “I won’t deny that I have one, but it was just a gift someone gave me despite my disinterest. I use it as a bookmark from time to time.”

               “O-Oh.”

               Akko’s surprise shifted back into disappointment. She turned back to Ursula and stabbed a finger at Diana. “See?! We have nothing in common! Are you sure there’s no one else?!”

               “W-Well, uh…” Ursula began shuffling through the papers her desk. Diana closed her eyes and released a soft sigh easily hidden by the rustling of the paper. She turned on her heels and opened the door, but unfortunately she wasn’t quiet enough to keep her professor from noticing her departure. “Diana?”

               She paused again in the doorway. She should’ve kept walking again. Twice she made the mistake to stop. Twice she made the mistake to speak. “If you change your mind, Akko, I’ll be studying in the library after class tomorrow. Until then, none of this is my business.” Her voice was even, unbroken, perfect—she’d learned to make it so. Her hand left the door handle and she kept walking, her pace steady, measured, graceful—just as she’d been taught. She wished, however briefly, that she felt as undisturbed as she looked.

               She returned to the library, back into a tall maze of shelves towards an old wooden table in the back, where Hanna and Barbara were already studying.

               “So what did Professor Ursula want?” Hannah as she watched Diana take a seat.

               “She asked me to do a tutoring job,” Diana answered simply.

               Barbara snickered. “A tutoring job? For who?”

               “I bet it was for Akko, wasn’t it? Everyone knows that she’s at the bottom of the class.”

               “At the moment, it doesn’t matter,” Diana interjected, “I wasn’t guaranteed the job.”

               Hannah and Barbara gaped at that for continuing their tirade against Akko, at which point Diana unpacked her textbooks and began studying to block them out. Beneath her chair, the toe of her left shoe tapped softly in beats of two.

-*O*-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _So now that we’ve established that Akko is failing and Diana is so far in the closet about everything that she hit fucking Narnia, let’s get this party started, shall we?_
> 
> _Now to all of you already on board with this story mere days into its publication…wow. You’ve successfully beaten my most popular fic in quantity of early reception. Special thanks to those of you that hopped on over from my other stories, I love getting reviews like that. In any case._
> 
> _Diakko trash Peeves out until next chapter._


	3. PSA

**ALL FICS PSA**

So…before you all lynch me for faking you out, yes, this is not a story update. This is an update on the state of things, a tell all to let you know where in production stage my stories are and to update you on the state of my life and why it’s taking so long. So. To begin with the latter…for those of you not already aware, I’m a college student, and as of last semester, an upperclassman. Now last semester I had six classes and that was the reasoning behind my packed schedule, this semester I’m back down to five but I’m also working two jobs and I’m prepping for a school trip to California and doing an amount of work to follow a class I’m not in during my free time.

I’ve had about…no time to sit down and write in the past month and a half so nothing is being written right now. In fact, for now it is safe to assume that unless I say otherwise (and even if I say otherwise let’s be honest here) nothing is in production between late August and mid-December, and nothing is in production between mid-January and early May. So that’s the state of my life right now, for those of you that have been asking. As for those of you who have been asking about my fics (mostly about, surprise surprise, Still Dreaming), I’m gonna list the state of each of my fics below here, so if you’re waiting on more than one and your inbox is flooded with emails about this one chapter for all of them (Sorry m8) you only have to check one fic to know the state of all of them. So the list goes as follows:

 

  1. **Still Dreaming:** and after over a year of time to work on it and all the fans asking, the 30 th chapter of Still Dreaming is…! …not started yet. I…I’m really sorry guys. I have the entire thing planned out, it’s gonna be super long, its gonna tie everything up, it will be the last chapter of this fic and…my muse is completely uncooperative. Now I write fast once my inspiration strikes so I will try to work on and get it done for this coming winter break, but I know myself well enough to not make promises.
  2. **In the Arms of a Thief:** So I actually finished of the rough draft of the upcoming chapter a few weeks ago, but life got busy and my keyboard is currently sticking on several keys so transcribing it onto a computer has been a grueling process
  3. **The Worst Timing:** Much like the readers of Still Dreaming I’m sure all of you are either tired of waiting or no longer interested. Unfortunately, much like Still Dreaming, I have not started the next chapter, and honestly I can’t remember where I was going with it. In all likelihood if I can’t remember I might pull this story from my library so as not to immerse any other poor souls in it only to leave them hanging (if you still want access to the story you should be able to download it and if you can’t just pm me)
  4. **And Hope Died with Her:** Well I have the chapter number written! -kicks self- Okay so honestly this one is extremely uncomfortable for me to write and I struggle to make decisions on it. It might be pulled like The Worst Timing
  5. **Team RRBY:** y’all should know that I posted this prematurely, before I was ready to focus the necessary amount of energy on this au. I want to work on this, and the second chapter is started I just…am very busy.
  6. **Grimm:** Like RRBY, the second chapter is started. It’s just not complete.
  7. **Delusions of Grandeur:** So if you’re on AO3 you might have noticed that this is your second update today…sorry, that’s because I kept forgetting to post the most recent chapter. Either way, you’ll be pleased to know that this fic is the most up to date—the last update is recent even on ffn and the next 14 chapters are planned out.
  8. **Frozen Hearts and Stolen Peaches/Neighbors:** I know that between both of these groups there are maybe 20 of you so I’m just combining the section, because it’s pretty much the same message. The next installment is started. Just sit tight
  9. **Spelling Lessons:** …I am so sorry. I’m actually overhauling and restarting this because when I started it, there weren’t that many episodes out for Little Witch Academia and I had six classes that slowly drowned m and kept me from writing. I based most of my decisions on headcanons that now have, for the most part, been disproven, so I’m going back and playing with the plot a little more. For the sake of it, the first chapter will likely remain the same. The second is up in the air.



 

And that’s everything. I hope this clears everything up. I’ll be back as soon as I can.


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